Sealed ¡V Eph. 1:13-14
Steve Simala Grant ¡V July 29, 2001
Intro:
I want to ask you a question to begin. Do you believe God speaks today? Do you believe that He still desires to communicate with us, that He still longs to talk with and to us? I do ¡V with all my heart. Today as we turn to Eph. 1:13-14, we are going to look at the Holy Spirit, through whom God speaks today. Most often through God¡¦s Word, the Bible, but sometimes in other ways as well.
These two verses appear at the end of a long section of praise to God, first to God the Father, who chose us and adopted us into His family, second to God the Son, who redeems, forgives, and who is in control and will bring everything together at the end of time, and the two verses we are going to look at today focus on praise to God the Spirit.
Because this is all one thought, I¡¦m going to begin reading at verse 3 and continue to verse 14.
overview main points for today.
1. Included in Christ:
Verse 13 begins ¡§And you also¡¨, so to understand what Paul is talking about here we need to look back to verses 11 and 12, where Paul talks about WE, and later qualifies that with the phrase ¡§who were the first to hope in Christ.¡¨ He is talking about Jesus¡¦ disciples, himself, and the other Jewish believers. And the themes in verse 11 are of God¡¦s choosing and predestining ¡V so really the point Paul is making is the familiar one of the election of God¡¦s people the Jews. And that is why those first five words of verse 13 are so revolutionary: ¡§And you also were included¡¨.
Can you remember a time when you were included? When a group opened up, invited you in, welcomed you into their midst? seminary lunch story¡K
The idea of Jews and gentiles together being the people of God may not be a big stretch for us today, after 2000 years of knowing that gentiles are included. But this was a revolutionary truth in Paul¡¦s day, and as we¡¦ll see later in Ephesians is significant for what it means to be the people of God. We have been included. And it is the cross of Jesus that invites us into God¡¦s family ¡V to be in a covenant relationship with God through Christ ¡V that is why it says we were included in Christ.. It is only through Jesus that we can become part of God¡¦s family, included as His people.
If this section is supposed to be focussed on the Holy Spirit, why are we still talking about Jesus? We¡¦ll talk more about this in a moment, but for now let me just plant the thought that this is because the Holy Spirit¡¦s role is always to point us to Jesus. (repeat).
2. When you heard:
Inclusion comes from hearing. (read rest of verse). As I thought about this verse, my mind went immediately to Romans 10:14. Though Paul is talking there specifically about the Jewish people, the principle applies to everyone. ¡§How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?¡¨ See the flow of thought: people can¡¦t rely on Jesus if they don¡¦t believe, they can¡¦t believe if they¡¦ve never heard, they can¡¦t hear unless someone tells them, no one will tell them unless someone sends them.
This same thing is true today. The people around us who don¡¦t know Christ can¡¦t believe until they hear. They can¡¦t hear unless someone tells them. In order for someone to tell them, they must be sent. Let me start at the end and work my way back ¡V the sending part. This one is easy ¡V we have already been sent. Jesus sent us ¡V Acts 1:8. Matt. 28:19-20. In addition to Jesus sending us, you are sent by the church. Pastor Dave was here for 23 years, and at the end of a service he almost always said what? ¡§Go, live like Christians in your world.¡¨ There is a sign on the back window. God has called the church to be a witness through our worship, but it is individual Christians living in a lost world that He has called to ¡§preach¡¨ to those who have not yet heard. (repeat?).
So you and I are sent. That takes care of that one. The next step is for the ¡§sent¡¨ to ¡§preach¡¨. This is a stumbling block word for us, because we associate ¡§preaching¡¨ with what I am doing now to a group of mostly Christians. That is not the idea behind the word in Rom. 10:14 ¡V there it is the idea of being a herald, or a proclaimer. A herald would sound the trumpet, letting everyone know of some important message. The essence of the word means to communicate effectively. In our culture, how do we do that?
I¡¦ve been talking for the last few weeks about how we need to be sharing our faith with those who don¡¦t know Christ yet. I¡¦ve said how important it is, how we need to be doing it, just now how we are sent to do it. I want to take a few moments here this morning to be a bit more tangible ¡V a bit more practical. How can you ¡§preach¡¨ or ¡§proclaim¡¨ this ¡§word of truth, the gospel of your salvation¡¨ effectively?
1. Live it. Your life has to match your words. Our words are ineffective, and ultimately damaging, if they are not backed up by how we live our lives with integrity. If you are going to ¡§share your faith¡¨, you need to have something exciting to share!
2. Proclaim it. high school ¡V living it is not enough!
3. Don¡¦t feel like you have to give it everything in one shot. PROCESS of coming to faith ¡V many contacts, many different conversations. Evangelism is not presenting the gospel and leading someone in a prayer of salvation ¡V that is only the last step! There is sooo much that comes before. Think of it like a tomato plant: seeds, have to be planted, need to be watered, need sunlight, need to be staked, maybe some fertilizer, need to be pollinated, and then, eventually, you see the fruit. So relax. Be a part of the process!
4. Where do we start. 1. relationships with non-Christians. GENUINE relationships. 2. Pray. That is where I want you to start today. That is all I am going to ask you to do this week ¡V pick one non-Christian and commit to praying for them everyday. Pray first for God to work in their life, and second for God to give you an opportunity to share with them.
The reason prayer is so important is because of the final step ¡V after hearing, people need to believe. And this is all up to God. Our job is to go and to be faithful in proclaiming the ¡§word of truth, the gospel of salvation.¡¨ It is the Holy Spirit¡¦s job to bring people to faith, to stimulate belief, and to bring them into the Kingdom. It is the Holy Spirit¡¦s job to bring us to Christ.
So will you commit to pray for 1 non-Christian? show of hands?? write their name down somewhere, right now.
me stop and pray right here ¡V for (gasp!) opportunity.
3. Sealed with the Spirit:
Verse 13 tells us that we were included when we heard, and it continues ¡§having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.¡¨
What does this mean, to be ¡§sealed¡¨ with the Holy Spirit? There are two ideas present here: ownership and protection. ¡§Mark(ing) with a seal¡¨ is what was done to cattle, and sometimes even slaves. It is the idea of branding ¡V of placing a mark so that everyone knows to whom this belongs. When we believe, God places His mark ¡V which is the Holy Spirit ¡V on us so that everyone knows we belong to Him. The second idea is that of protection: since we are marked as belonging to God, we can know that He will come to our aid „³ in fact, the truth of the Holy Spirit as our mark is that He is with us constantly to protect and to strengthen. If a farmer brands his cows, and someone tries to steal them or if they wander off somewhere and get into trouble, that farmer is going to go after them and rescue them.
Part of this idea of protection is a guarantee of delivery intact ¡V there is an eternal dimension here ¡V the Holy Spirit will seal us and protect us and deliver us into eternity intact. This idea is brought out more in the next verse, but don¡¦t you find that encouraging? When we believe, God gives us His Spirit so that the world will know we belong to Him, and so that we are protected both now and into the next life. What a marvelous promise, something to cling to and take comfort and strength from.
4. A deposit:
If you¡¦ve ever made a major purchase, you likely had to put down a deposit ¡V a downpayment. That is exactly how the Holy Spirit is described here in Eph. 1:14 (read).
At the moment of faith, when we believe, we receive the Holy Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance.
Like most areas of faith, God does all the work: our role is to make room and to allow Him ¡V to give Him permission and opportunity ¡V to speak to us and to change us. It is the same with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit ¡V God has given us the HS, as a seal and as a deposit. Our role is to cooperate with God the Spirit.
watch story.
If someone bought your house, and wrote you a check for say $10 000, you would have the deposit. And you could take that check, put it in your wallet, and carry it around for the next 20 years. You would have the deposit. But that would be silly! You would technically have it, but you wouldn¡¦t be making use of it, it wouldn¡¦t be doing any good sitting in your wallet.
Sometimes that is what we do with the HS. We receive the deposit, but we tuck it away. Instead of cashing that deposit, using it, relying on it, living in it ¡V we keep living in our own strength and power. I know I¡¦ve done that ¡V I keep winding the watch ¡V I try to live in my own strength instead of in God¡¦s strength ¡V I try to stay in control instead of yielding myself to God¡¦s control.
So what happens when we yield to God¡¦s control? This is the scary part! We¡¦ve heard stories about what God has done, we heard one this morning from Lyn, and maybe it is a bit intimidating, a bit out of our comfort zone, maybe it even seems a little bit weird. Let me respond to that feeling by saying this: first, anything God does will be good. It can¡¦t be otherwise!! second, don¡¦t expect God to do something strange or wacky ¡V He might, but He often doesn¡¦t. He often simply floods us with peace, or brings us joy. Gal. 5:22-23 say that cashing the deposit results in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. THAT is what we need to expect, that is what God desires to create in us. How He chooses to create those things in us is up to Him, but I can promise that it will be good. third, God will empower us. next week ¡V more about God¡¦s power. God gives us gifts by His Spirit so that we will have power to work for God¡¦s kingdom. All kinds of gifts ¡V some like Lyn¡¦s some like Bill Parsons gifts of administration. And if you read 1Cor. 12, the point there is that EACH OF THESE GIFTS IS FROM THE SAME SPIRIT.
I see two equally great and dangerous errors when we talk about the Holy Spirit. The first is that we take the deposit and leave it in our wallet, and miss out on much of what God wants to say to us and do through us. The second is of spiritual pride ¡V that tendency to experience something that God is doing in us and then look at everyone else and presume that they are not hearing God speak, and that they are thus ¡§less spiritual¡¨ then us. Both are harmful, both are Satan¡¦s way of trying to keep God from working freely in us and through us.
What is the middle ground, between those two dangers? It is to be open to God, expecting Him to speak to us, and to treat each other with all love, respect and humility, never assuming that God is not speaking to someone just because they don¡¦t hear God speak the same way you do.
We are at a place as a church where we need all the parts of the body to be empowered by God the Spirit and to serve according to their gifts. We each need to seek God, and see where He is calling us to serve His Kingdom. God has given us the Holy Spirit as a deposit, we each need to make sure that the check isn¡¦t sitting in our wallets, but that it is cashed and we are growing in Christlikeness and serving where God has gifted us.
And that is the point ¡V growing in Christlikeness and serving where God has gifted us. The Holy Spirit¡¦s role is to point us to Jesus, to bring us to Jesus, to make us more like Jesus, and to empower us to serve Jesus. J.I. Packer is an author and teacher, highly respected. He describes the Holy Spirit this way:
¡§The Holy Spirit’s distinctive role is to fulfill what we may call a floodlight ministry in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. When floodlighting is well done, the floodlights are placed so that you do not see them; in fact, you are not supposed to see where the light is coming from; what you are meant to see is just the building on which the floodlights are trained. The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not be seen for the darkness, and to maximize its dignity by throwing all its details into relief so that you can see it properly. This perfectly illustrates the Spirit’s new covenant role. He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight shining on the Savior.
Or think of it this way. It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder on to Jesus who stands facing us. The Spirit’s message to us is never, "Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me", but always, "Look at him, and see his glory; listen to him and hear his word; go to him and have life; get to know him and taste his gift of joy and peace." The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together.
(James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.)
Praise God for the blessings we have in God the Holy Spirit ¡V that He includes us, that he enabled us to hear God¡¦s call and sends us with the gospel, that He seals us, and that He is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. We¡¦ve talked a lot about the Spirit as a deposit, we can¡¦t neglect the fact that this deposit guarantees our inheritance. See the eternal perspective once again ¡V our inheritance is safe, it is waiting for us, it is guaranteed.
Have you cashed the deposit? If you have, you are on the journey of becoming more like Jesus and of being empowered to serve in His Kingdom. If you don¡¦t feel like you have, if you feel like you are lacking or missing out or even if you just desire more, pray a simple prayer that God reveal Himself to you through His Holy Spirit. Invite Him, give Him permission to work in your life, and know the joy of God pouring His goodness out upon you.
This first half of Eph. 1 has been quite a journey. I want to close with the words with which the passage begins: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
prayer.
benediction ¡V now go as ones who are sent. You have the light of Christ, let it shine on those around you who do not yet know Him as their Lord and Savior.
